Best PlacesBerea, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Berea, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Berea ranks 5,680th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Berea
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Berea's strengths and weaknesses
Where Berea ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of towns
Where Berea ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,273 a month, better than only 11% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 63 pleasant days a year, better than only 13% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Berea
A household needs to earn about $63,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Berea home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,627, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Berea's effective rate of 1.88%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Berea
Berea's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Berea.
Who works in Berea, and how
Work in Berea centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Berea
Berea has more restaurants and bars per resident than 75% of towns and more parkland per resident than 92% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Berea and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Berea, month by month
Berea sees roughly 63 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 30° | 23° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 86° | 76° | 65° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Berea
Cleveland-Hopkins International sits about 3 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.9 million passengers in 2025, with 72 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Berea
Schools across Berea average an A−, better than 84% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Big Creek Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Firelands Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Copopa Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Amherst Junior High SchoolA+ · 70% proficient
- Olmsted Falls Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Firelands Middle SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Olmsted Falls High SchoolA · 71% proficient
- Marion L Steele High SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Firelands High SchoolB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Berea school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Berea measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Berea against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Berea
Is Berea a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Berea ranks 5,680th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, low disaster risk, and walkability, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Berea expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $211,318. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $83,627 median income, cost of living beats 75% of towns.
Is Berea safe?
Berea is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $284 per resident a year.
Compare Berea with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Berea. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Berea represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Berea detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Berea: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Berea: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Berea: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Berea: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Berea detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.